The Singers Tale- Writing- obsessions- String, rope, twine & hemp. A poem called string ©

String Carol grimes September 2018 ©

String rhymes with sing and wing, I like string.   

A useful thing – made of many colours, textures, thickness, and weight.

I love to sing, I would love to fly, to wing it and sing it-

please wrap it  – and tie it with string for me.

Holding up your trousers when you have forgotten a belt. 

Khipu for the Inca and for Sailors, a half hitch or a figure of eight.

Alpine, Butterfly or Ashleys Bend.

Twine rhymes with mine, heart beating, mouth singing,

hands waving, don’t unwind my one ball of string, I need it to wrap a parcel,

 tie a knot, cats cradle – you can do a lot with string.  

Grandmothers saved it, along with paper, envelopes and elastic bands.

You never know when you might need such things.

Waste not, want not.’

For Knots – in the end, we will always need string, rope, and twine. 

String, with its sister twine and a Grandfather’s rope – mine to unwind.

To prop up an old gnarled tree, a gate or a shrub gone wild in the wind. 

Bowline or Hitch for sewing a stitch on a patch, ships sail or a tent. 

String, a humble thing, but necessary.  

I am upset when there is no string handy,

ready, for doing the things that need string.

A simple but beautiful, and sometimes life saving thing.

String, my ode to String. c.g. ©

4 comments

  1. Gimme string, real string not the plastic imitation string that doesn’t even smell like string. I love the smell of new string, just as I love the smell of a new spring. Like flowers, each string has its own delicious scent. Gimme, gimme, gimme lovely, fresh string.

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